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Busted

Got pulled over yesterday doing 72 in a 55 by the sheriff of the county I live in. He was coming toward me following close behind another car. I never saw him until his lights came on. I just pulled over before he even made his U turn.
I had met him once a couple years ago while getting my RT registered. When he approached me I acted like an old friend and with my most neighborly attitude I could muster. How're you doing sheriff . I could tell he didn't recognize me and gave him my name and where I lived. He was friendly and asked about my bike. I was loaded up with a big duffel bag full of camping gear. He asked if I was going on a trip and I explained that I wasn't leaving until Saturday and that I was just checking out the new bike to see how it handled with a load ( which is true). He was amazed at the size of my side cases.
The only thing he mentioned was that my speed would be appropriate on a highway but not here. And went back to his cruiser. Nice

I could have used a detector while riding through Bluff City TN. on HWY. 19. They lower the speed limit from 55 to 45 for 600 feet at a intersection where there radar camera is mounted. I received a ticket two weeks later in the mail for speeding. What should have been two or three miles over the limit was now 12 or 13. I didn't remember the lower speed signs or the intersection.

My project this spring is to take my Escort wireless. I've got the dongle, a Sena SMH5, and now I just need the smart device in between so they can talk to each other. I've learned a lot about Bluetooth.

Rinty

"When you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there."

My V-1 has moved to the trunk of my wife's car for the last 4 or 5 years where it sits unused. It used to live on the bike. I don't use it any more for several reasons, one of which is that mostly I don't care where the shopping centers are and don't need a radar detector to find one when I do care.

I really liked the arrows on the V-1 telling me the rough direction of the "threat". I do believe it saved me from one ticket over the years of use, maybe more. The one was where CHP were out in force to slow down a section of US 395 where traffic tended to move around 80 MPH. They were pulling over just about everyone. I had about 3 miles of warning with the detector chirping every time I hit a rise in the undulation of the road. I and the group of bikes following me were going the limit as we passed 4 cars being cited and 2 more CHP cruisers on the hunt.

I could have used a detector while riding through Bluff City TN. on HWY. 19. They lower the speed limit from 55 to 45 for 600 feet at a intersection where there radar camera is mounted. I received a ticket two weeks later in the mail for speeding. What should have been two or three miles over the limit was now 12 or 13. I didn't remember the lower speed signs or the intersection.

IIRC they removed the camera after a big rally was in the area and dozens of motorcyclist got hit with tickets on the same day. There was a big stink raised with one of the locals who attended the rally spearheading the effort. They managed to get them taken to court and had them remove the camera and the people who fought their tickets won. It was determined to be a speed trap even by the courts.

Originally Posted by tommcgee

I have too, it mostly doesn't work. If you can get it to pair at all, it drops connections for no obvious reasons.

Bluetooth was intended to be a standard so devices from different manufacturers would work with each other. The reality is that it isn't that simple and all devices are not created equal. I have, or had, at least 50 or 60 bluetooth devices in the past 8 or 9 years. Very few reliably work as they were intended. Now we are up to Bluetooth v4.0. It's very likely that one generation will have a problem with another. Audio quality is also highly variable depending on the device.

What Rinty intends to do should be fine as long the dongle works with his headset. I have dongles that work with some devices and not with others. Read the Amazon reviews, I'm not the only one.

Salty Fog Rally 2007, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014 And DRAT! Missed the last one in 2015!

Bluetooth was intended to be a standard so devices from different manufacturers would work with each other. The reality is that it isn't that simple and all devices are not created equal. I have, or had, at least 50 or 60 bluetooth devices in the past 8 or 9 years. Very few reliably work as they were intended. Now we are up to Bluetooth v4.0. It's very likely that one generation will have a problem with another. Audio quality is also highly variable depending on the device.

What Rinty intends to do should be fine as long the dongle works with his headset. I have dongles that work with some devices and not with others. Read the Amazon reviews, I'm not the only one.

Geeez Tom - if you're going to post something that I can completely agree with, you can't do that first thng in my morning routine - now I have to clean the coffee spray off my computer monitor!

I too have experimented with many BlueTooth devices - some work, some don't. Some mate well with others. Some don't want to play nice.

All will drop a signal without so much as a 'head's up' - which you should have given me before posting your comments while I was drinking coffee - OK, OK, I'm over that now.

BlueTooth is a handy option in my electronic toolbox, and I own three systems on which I enjoy hearing the GPS directions in a wireless manner (SENA), occasionally some music (SUOUMY) and communicating with my son, bike-to-bike, when we tour together or tear up and down The Dragon (CARDO Q4).

But I wouldn't want the current technology running a pacemaker - that's for sure. Perhaps once version 275.3.1 shows up, they will have the bugs worked out.

But I wouldn't want the current technology running a pacemaker - that's for sure. Perhaps once version 275.3.1 shows up, they will have the bugs worked out.

I think the real problem is the competition in the marketplace. "Our bluetooth is better than theirs." The same thing happened with musical devices and MIDI. Both MIDI and Bluetooth were meant to be a common language for devices to communicate. Whether it works or not depends on how well the individual manufacturers adhere to the published standard.

I use BT to connect the phone to the Garmin, but the rest of my system is hard wired via Autocom. I don't drink coffee anymore either.

Salty Fog Rally 2007, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014 And DRAT! Missed the last one in 2015!

My V-1 has moved to the trunk of my wife's car for the last 4 or 5 years where it sits unused. It used to live on the bike. I don't use it any more for several reasons, one of which is that mostly I don't care where the shopping centers are and don't need a radar detector to find one when I do care.

I really liked the arrows on the V-1 telling me the rough direction of the "threat". I do believe it saved me from one ticket over the years of use, maybe more. The one was where CHP were out in force to slow down a section of US 395 where traffic tended to move around 80 MPH. They were pulling over just about everyone. I had about 3 miles of warning with the detector chirping every time I hit a rise in the undulation of the road. I and the group of bikes following me were going the limit as we passed 4 cars being cited and 2 more CHP cruisers on the hunt.

That was very lucky for you. When they are working in force like that, there is often an aircraft overhead...no radar...just good ol' stopwatches and eyesight. And yes, I know that stopwatches and time/distance calculations are illegal in California. They get around that by using the stopwatch to "time the speed of the aircraft, not the violator". They pace the violator according to measured roadway markings, and time the plane. Sounds legit, eh? LOL

That being said, I have to side with Kevin G. In my long career on the other side of the radar gun (including several years as a dedicated traffic/DUI officer), I stopped a lot of people with "pigtails to nowhere" sitting on their dashes next to velcro patches (because they hid the detectors before I approached the car), and a lot of others who openly joked about wasting money on the expensive detectors sitting on their dashes. Once I broached the conversation and revealed that I wasn't a complete dick, most of my new friends willingly talked to me about their detector experiences. Most of them were very surprised when I would tell them frankly of the capabilities of my radar and laser equipment.

Almost everyone who has posted has given information or anecdotes that are dead on, and these different opinions are not mutually exclusive. Nor does it mean one or another is wrong. Yes, radar detectors do work because they will detect "splatter" from cars in front of you being hit. No, they cannot defeat instant-on radar. Yes, many places you will be safe if you stick to "5 over" or "7 over" or whatever. No, that is not a guarantee. You can be written for 1 over...it's up to the officer and the kind of day he has had so far. Traffic speed enforcement is a legitimate safety tool, and yes, speed does kill. Is it in the same league as DUI/Distracted Driving/[insert offense here]? Who knows? That is up to you to decide. BUT, I will tell you, I went from the officer who always gave everyone 11 over the limit before scratching that tag, to the guy who started CONSIDERING the citation at 5 over and LIKELY writing that cite at 8 over. What changed me? Working a traffic unit and being primary investigator on 150-200 vehicle collisions a year for several years. You would be very surprised how many preventable collisions were speed related...I mean DIRECTLY caused by someone driving at an unsafe speed in traffic conditions that they should have known better about.

So, the trick is to know (intimately) who radar works, and the limitations of both radar and your detector. Don't ride alone...instant-on will eat you for lunch. Ride with groups of vehicles, preferably with something bigger or faster in front of you, and dart from group to group when you can't find a 'bait-car' to run in front of you. Your radar detector will help you, but only if there are other targets in front of you to entice that LEO to turn on his radar. But also bear in mind that it isn't that hard for an officer to stop more than one car at a time. I often would stop the fast lead car AND the drafting candidate running behind the first...as long as you can articulate that they were either running the same speed, or were able to get individual speed indicators, 2-for-1 is a sweet bargain for an LEO.

I saw another post here earlier in the thread about how laser isn't as common yet, and therefore not as great a threat. For those of you who ride with me in the (used to be) great Golden State, the CHP is now aggressively fielding laser guns statewide. It is relatively new program statewide, previously limited to problem areas. So be careful on the beautiful bypasses of California...they are getting sneakier.

Ride safe everyone, and beware the parked car on the overpass! LOL

David W.
Public Safety Professional since 19852007 R1200RTDominus pascit me

It's the old gold standard. The new one is the Escort 9500ix, which has a GPS database of red light cameras, speed traps, and it locks out false alarms the third time you ride through them. It also has networking via smartphone, so anyone else with the "smartcord live" on the road you're on will auto-transfer his alerts to your device. If you're riding into police activity, you're gonna know about a mile ahead of time. The other big advantage is monthly updates via downloads from Escort. And yeah, it costs more than the V1. The only thing the V1 has going for it is the directional arrows, but hey, if I get a Ka band alert, it doesn't take me long to visually scan in all directions.

I have the Red-light alert in my Garmin 665.

V-1 all the way. Please don't belittle the effectiveness of the arrows. I believe it is crucial to know where (and don't forget it tells you how many) signals there are and which signal is strongest

I have been using it in my cars for years and bike for 4 years!

NO TICKETS!

You must learn to interpret what your detector is conveying to you. You cannot depend on a detector if you are alone on a road or leading a pack with no vehicles in front of you.

I have always considered a RD, but never gotten one. At one point I did a lot of research and it seemed the escort was really the best. My friend has a Valentine 1 and says he gets a lot of false readings here around the Bay Area.

I'll be honest, I go fast. My cruising speed is generally around 80mph on the freeway (though lately I've been able to tone it down to 70-75) and I've been commuting for about 10 years mostly in a car, but recently on my RT. I've been pulled over maybe 7 or 8 times for speed and received two tickets for speeding. I haven't been pulled over in the last 4 years though as I've matured a bit and learned how to avoid tickets as well as dangerous situations. I always operate with a buffer zone system. If I'm going 80mph, I have room in front of me to react and brake all the way to a stop if need be. If I don't have that distance, I slow down until I do. At 80mph the RT takes roughly 4 seconds to slow to a stop at maximum braking and good road conditions. To make this easier, I also often try to get to the front of a pack of cars if there is room. This does leave me as the primary target for traffic enforcement.

I have also learned to spot where typical spots are for police to meter from and if I suspect one is around the corner, I slow down instinctively. Also remember that the horizon of a hill is an easy place to meter as you can't see what's on the down slope until you crest the top and are already metered. I know just about every spot CHP sits on my commute and I've even stopped by at their top-of-the-hill rest stop hangout to say hi. If I'm in an area I don't I don't know, I generally ride slower. Lastly, if there is traffic or even moderate crowding, my pace slows quite a bit (luckily I have always commuted in off-hours for traffic). I'm not trying for this to sound like a cop evasion class. I understand that the speed I ride is not legal and is deemed "unsafe" by the law, though I disagree with the latter. I feel I ride/drive prudently and that I am capable of travelling at those speeds safely. If I get pulled over, I'm honest and will answer questions. Remember you can always take the "don't self-incriminate" route, but you'll likely still get a ticket if you were breaking the law. I have nothing to hide and on a traffic stop I'll eat the ticket if I did the speed they say.

I highly doubt any radar detector would have had an effect on any of my incidents of being stopped.

V-1 all the way. Please don't belittle the effectiveness of the arrows. I believe it is crucial to know where (and don't forget it tells you how many) signals there are and which signal is strongest

If that's what you like, go for it, only you don't need arrows to tell you to slow down if you're riding too fast and the Ka alert goes off. I ran a V1 and Escort 9500ix side by side for about a year. The only place the V1 holds its own is on the open road in non-urban areas.

Salty Fog Rally 2007, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014 And DRAT! Missed the last one in 2015!